A Republican "autopsy" analyzing the party's weaknesses after its poor showing in the November election proposes that the GOP "embrace" comprehensive immigration reform and spend $10 million on grassroots outreach to Latinos and other minority voters who are now supporting Democrats by a 4-to-1 margin nationally.

It's a huge policy shift. Last summer the party's official platform opposed immigration reform and lesser measures like the Dream Act, a federal measure that would have offered a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children and had fulfilled certain requirements. Then, the party embraced GOP nominee Mitt Romney's idea of self-deportation, which alienated many Latino voters.

But Monday's 97-page report, officially known as "The Growth and Opportunity Project," suggests taking a softer approach given that 80 percent of Latinos as well as Asian American voters supported President Obama. The report, which analyzes other aspects of the GOP effort last fall from digital communication to grassroots organizing, suggests that Republicans "embrace and champion" immigration reform.

It will be a challenge, as even top Republicans fear offending the party's conservative base. At last week's Conservative Political Action Conference, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a point person on immigration reform, didn't even mention the topic during his high-profile speech.

Few policy ideas

"If Hispanic Americans hear that the GOP doesn't want them in the United States, they won't pay attention to our next sentence. It doesn't matter what we say about education, jobs or the economy," the report states, "if Hispanics think that we do not want them here, they will close their ears to our policies."

But 14 of the report's 15 recommendations for wooing Latino voters are more or less marketing ideas. Other than changing the party's stance on immigration, there are few policy prescriptions. Only 1 percent of the GOP's $1 billion 2012 presidential campaign was directed at Hispanic media and marketing, the study found.

"It will take more than marketing outreach to reach Latino voters," said Gary Segura, a professor of political science at Stanford University and co-founder of the polling firm Latino Decisions, which closely tracks Latino voters.

A Latino Decisions survey Monday of 800 registered Latino voters found that even if Republicans were instrumental in co-authoring an immigration reform law, 49 percent of those surveyed said it would have "no effect" on their vote in the future.

A better chance

Still, 32 percent said if Republicans did co-sponsor comprehensive reform, they would be more likely to vote Republican - including 26 percent of Latinos who voted for Obama in 2012, the survey found.

"That is actually good news for Republicans," Segura said. "Voters said they are willing to change."

But the report also cautions Republicans to carefully monitor their rhetoric because "in the modern media environment a poorly phrased argument or out-of-context statement can spiral out of control and reflect poorly on the Party."

That is what happened Monday when President Obama formally nominated Justice Department official Thomas Perez to be secretary of labor. Born in the U.S. to immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Perez would be the only Latino in Obama's second-term Cabinet. He is a self-made man, the type of biography that appeals to Republicans.

But conservatives came out firing Monday. Commentator Rush Limbaugh said Perez is so liberal he "may as well be (late Venezuelan leader) Hugo Chavez."